Hollow Heart
by Iris Musicia
Summary: Kitty is murdered on a naval base and all the X-Men are suspects in a case investigated by Gibbs and his team.  Kurt is looking guiltier by the minute, but who would want to kill Kitty?  Implied Kurtty!
1. Prologue

**I got this idea from watching "Light Sleeper", an NCIS episode. Yay, my first crossover! Don't be too hard on me *cringes*.**

It was late at night as Kitty Pryde was walking across the naval base after meeting her friend at the bar on base, and she was going to catch the last bus out of the base that night, trying to get home to the Xavier Institute. She saw somebody sitting at the bus stop and went over to them.

"Nice night." She said conversationally. The person remained silent. Kitty nodded and stayed quiet, looking down at her nails. Silently, unnoticed by the young girl, the other person drew a gun and cocked it. Then she looked up into the muzzle of a gun. Before she could say another word, the person pulled the trigger and the muffled gun fired a single round into Kitty's head.

The person jumped up and dashed away as Kitty Pryde's lifeless body hit the ground.

**Hm, who could have killed Kitty? Why would they want to kill Kitty? What will the other X-Men do? Who's going to investigate the murder? So many questions! Any suggestions on plot will be taken into account, and any guesses as to the murderer will be accepted heartily!**


	2. Suspect

**Okay, in case any of you were wondering/freaking out, I am NOT ABANDONING XME or KURTTY! This is just something I wanted to do on a whim, and have decided to do. Don't worry, if everybody reviews nicely, I'll post a lovely new Kurtty story that I think you'll all enjoy.**

**And thank you SO much to everyone who reviewed—I had no idea it would be this popular! :)**

**Disclaimer: I own neither XME or NCIS.**

Gibbs stormed into the room and DiNozzo and Ziva suddenly sat to attention. "We've got a homicide on the base, the South Street bus stop. Get to it!" he barked, and McGee leaped up, Tony grabbed the keys, and Ziva was at the elevator before you could say "murder".

XXX

When they arrived at the scene, Ducky was already examining the body of a young woman. The ME looked up at Gibbs and handed him an ID. "Mary Goddard?" Gibbs questioned.

"Apparently." Ducky said. "Estimated time of death is around eleven last night. Cause of death is a single gunshot wound to the head. These burn marks around the wound indicate the gun was pressed up against her head."

Gibbs cocked his head and looked at the girl, eyes wide open and face a picture of shock. He frowned. Who would want to kill a girl like this?

"Ziva, start interviewing people who live around here. See if they heard gunshots or screaming last night at eleven." Gibbs said, and Ziva nodded and went off. Tony was taking pictures of the crime scene and the placement of the body. McGee had swabbed for any fingerprints, and was currently having no—

"Boss, I got a print!" McGee called, sounding slightly confused.

"What?" Gibbs snapped as he came over. The print McGee had revealed with the white powder was about three times as big as a normal print. Gibbs frowned at it. "Get it back to Abbs."

"Right, boss." McGee lifted the print and went off. Gibbs went over to Ziva, who had just finished interviewing an old woman.

"Any luck?" Gibbs asked. Ziva shook her head.

"Nobody heard or saw anything. Apparently our killer is a ghost." Ziva said.

"Nope. McGee got a print." Gibbs said as he walked off. McGee had put the print in an evidence bag and was swabbing the seat of the bench and the glass walls of the bus stop.

"Anything new?" Gibbs asked. McGee nodded, stuck the swab in a vial, and shook it up.

"I found gunshot residue on the walls and bench, as well as high concentrations of sulfur." McGee reported.

"Sure that wasn't just your McMuffin?" Tony asked snidely, looking up from the camera. McGee glared at him.

"Get it to Abbs." Gibbs said again. "Are we ready to go?"

Ducky and Palmer had just loaded Mary Goddard into the back of the truck and were ready to move out. "Ready to go, Jethro."

"Let's move!" Gibbs called to his team.

XXX

Back at NCIS, Gibbs came down to Autopsy first to see the body. Ducky looked up from sewing the girl shut after autopsying her.

"This girl's name is not Mary Goddard." Ducky said.

"How do you know that?" Gibbs asked. Ducky pointed at X-rays up on the light board.

"This girl's femur is not fully grown. If she were as old as indicated on the ID, her femur would be fully grown. Naturally, her name cannot be Mary Goddard if that is a fake ID as I have just proved." Ducky concluded.

"Well, then, find me a name!" Gibbs said, storming out of Autopsy, going to Abby's lab.

"Right on time!" Abby said, taking a sip of her Caf-Pow as she turned around.

"What have you got for me?" Gibbs asked. Abby twirled around to her computer and typed rapidly, pulling up a picture of the huge print McGee lifted.

"Okay, so, I searched this print through AFIS and didn't find anything so I ran it through InterPol." Abby said.

"And what did you find?" Gibbs asked, rather impatiently.

"The print belongs to Kurt Wagner, who was convicted for the murder of Stefan Szardos in Bavaria in the 90's." Abby read off the screen.

"Where does he live?" Gibbs snapped.

"The Xavier Institute." Abby reeled off the address as Gibbs was already in the elevator. Minutes later, the team was on the move to the Xavier Institute.

Driving through the gate and up the driveway, Gibbs parked the car and went up to the door and knocked. There was no answer, and the door was open. He and his team burst in, guns at the ready.

"Gentlemen, please!" a bald man in a wheelchair came rolling down a hallway. Gibbs aimed his gun at him and he raised his hands, stopping.

"Who are you?" Gibbs demanded, keeping his gun raised.

"I'm Professor Charles Xavier, I run this institute." Xavier said calmly, then resumed rolling towards the agents, who cautiously lowered their guns. Gibbs whipped out his badge and waved it under Xavier's nose.

"We're looking for Kurt Wagner. We need to talk to him now." Gibbs said bluntly.

"I'm sorry . . . Kurt's rather, ah, busy, sir . . . ?" Xavier said, looking from Gibbs to Tony to McGee and Ziva.

"Special Agent Gibbs. Special Agent DiNozzo. Agent McGee. Agent David." Gibbs said, not taking his eyes off Xavier. "We need to talk to Kurt Wagner _now_."

"Kurt is busy at the moment, he's not available right now." Xavier insisted, rather forcefully. Suddenly, there was a loud clang and Gibbs looked up, pushing past Xavier and storming off down the hall, despite Xavier's protests. He raised his gun as he came to a sliding metal door.

"What is this?" McGee whispered.

"Open up!" Gibbs shouted, banging his fist on the door. There was a hum from inside the room as the door opened. Five teens in odd suits looked at them confusedly.

"Who's Kurt Wagner?.!" Tony demanded. There was a movement up in the shadows of the large, circular, metallic room. A black gecko-thing came crawling down the wall towards them, and McGee recoiled. It disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

There was a sudden explosion in front of Gibbs. Ziva fired her gun into the smoke, but Gibbs stood strong. At the gunshot, the gecko-thing, which proved to be a demon, leaped clear over Gibbs's head and tackled Ziva, wrestled her to the ground and ripped her gun out of her hand, growling. Instantly, everyone's guns were trained and ready to shoot at the demon. It looked up with glowing gold eyes filled with hate. It disappeared with a crack like a gunshot and reappeared on the wall above the door, fangs bared at the agents, whose guns relocated onto it.

"I'm Kurt Wagner." The demon growled, barbed tail lashing in anger. Gibbs's eyes widened imperceptibly.

"You're going to have to come with us." McGee said.

"Vy should I?" Kurt snapped, gold eyes filled with anger.

"Because you're a suspect in a murder." Tony said. Kurt's jaw dropped.

"Does zis have anyzing to do viz Keety?" he demanded, jumping down off the wall.

"Keety?" Gibbs repeated.

"_Ja,_ Kazerine Pryde, she didn't come home last night, she voz at a bar at ze base." Kurt said. Suddenly, the gears clicked in Gibbs's head. He jerked his chin at Tony, who slapped handcuffs on Kurt's hands.

"You're under arrest for the murder of a Jane Doe." Tony announced. The other teens who had been standing motionless, watching, sprang to life.

"Let go of my brotha!" a girl cried, running towards them, but got pulled back by a tall guy with a red visor over his eyes.

"Rogue, don't," he cautioned in a low voice.

"I can't let them take him." Rogue said, glaring at Gibbs.

"This is your _brother_?" Tony asked incredulously.

"Adopted." Kurt muttered and Tony nodded.

"What are you doing to Kurt?" Xavier demanded, rolling into the room.

"He's a suspect in the murder of a Jane Doe we found last night on the base. Her fake ID said her name was Mary Goddard." Gibbs said.

Everybody froze. It seemed he'd struck a nerve.

"Should I take him . . . ?" Tony asked lowly. Gibbs nodded.

"Everybody come with us." Gibbs said, and the teens started towards the agents, and a man appeared out of an elevator that was in the middle of the room that went up to a control room. He was stalking angrily towards them, and though he was short, he was stockily built and Gibbs could feel the fury radiating off him.

"Whaddya doin' wit' the Elf?" he growled.

"He's a suspect in a murder." Gibbs growled back, pushing the man backwards and turning to leave, following Tony, who was pushing a handcuffed Kurt along. There was the sound of feral snarling behind him, and he didn't turn to look, but several of the students were restraining him.

"Logan, don't!" Rogue, said, pulling her glove off warningly. Logan looked at her, eyes dark. After a few moments, he spoke.

"Get in t' car. I wanna follow this cop." He stalked off to the garage. Ahead, Gibbs heard Logan's comment, fingers twitching on the butt of his gun. Not just a cop.

XXX

The X-Men, Logan, Storm, McCoy, and the Professor were all being held in the bullpen, with Ziva watching them. She sat at her desk and watched them mill about, Logan, the stocky guy, tensely; Storm, the black woman with white hair, and the Professor, the bald man in the wheelchair, serenely; the two oldest students, a redheaded girl, Jean, and a boy with red shades, Scott, stoically; the girl with the white stripe in her hair, Rogue, moodily; Evan, the black boy with blonde hair, Storm's nephew, dejectedly. He came over to Ziva and sat next to her.

"Hey, you're Agent David, right?" he asked.

"It's Da_veed_." Ziva corrected.

"Israeli?" he asked. Ziva nodded.

"What do you want?" she asked rather tersely. Evan shrugged.

"I'm sad, sorta, we're down two team members. Kurt's my best friend, and Kit . . . well, I—we—still don't know if she's missing or dead, and it makes us all sad. They were a pair, those two, the kitten and the elf, boyfriend and girlfriend, like inseparable." He said, looking down at his hands.

"Mr. Wagner and your missing girl—" Ziva started, then put two and two together. She picked up her phone and dialed Gibbs's cell. Hopefully he wasn't in interrogation.

"Ziva, _what_?" Gibbs snapped from the other end of the line. He was in interrogation. Oh well.

"We need to take everyone to see Jane Doe. I think their missing girl is Jane Doe. They might be able to identify her." Ziva said, and beside her, Evan's face went from sad to hopeful to sad again.

"Bring 'm down." Gibbs said, and snapped his phone shut. Across the table, Kurt, looking sullen, narrowed his eyes at Gibbs. "C'mon, we're going to Autopsy." The special agent jerked his thumb over his shoulders, then stood, went around the table, grabbed Kurt's arm, hauled him up, and stepped on his tail, all in one smooth move.

"_Scheisse!_ Votch vere you're stepping!" Kurt snarled, wrenching his arm out of Gibbs's grasp to hold his tail. Gibbs glared at him.

"I'll step wherever I Goddamn want to. It's your responsibility to keep your tail out of the way." He growled, and pulled Kurt out of the room and down to Autopsy. The German muttered murderously under his breath the whole way.

When they got to Autopsy, the X-Men were already there. Jane Doe's body was in one of the storage lockers, Ducky waiting for Gibbs to get there before pulling her out. Gibbs nodded to Ducky.

"Alright, Jethro . . . I now present Jane Doe." Ducky opened the locker and pulled the tray out.

"_Keety!_"

**Thanks to Pscyhotol for pointing out that it is, in fact, AFIS, not AAFES (which is a military commissary). **

***beams* I know I shouldn't be smiling, but I **_**love love love**_** writing this story! It's so fun! :) Review, please, it makes me feel good!**


	3. Innocence

**I realize that Kurt is **_**REALLY **_**OOC in this story *wilts* sorry, but that's the way it will be, just for this story.**

**I'd like to dedicate this chapter to KrC, whose alert has made me realize that I've neglected this story. Thank you!**

* * *

Kurt wrenched himself free of Gibbs's grasp and 'ported to the locker. He used his tail to somehow free his hands of the cuffs and put his hands gently on Kitty's cheeks, tears streaking down his own.

"Oh, Keety," he mumbled. The X-Men patted him on the back and comforted him as they all cried, too. Gibbs _almost_ felt sad. Ducky stepped back respectfully and nodded to Gibbs. His nod said exactly what Gibbs was thinking. _So our Jane Doe is Katherine Pryde. And either this blue monkey is a damn good actor, or he's sincere._

"Alright." Gibbs muttered, dragging Kurt away from Kitty's body. "We need to run some tests."

"No, please! No tests!" Kurt said, starting to get nervous, on top of his grief. Abby came running into Autopsy at that second.

"I heard our prime suspect was blue and fuzzy and had a tail and was German and stuff and I've always wanted to meet a German elf and they call him Elf and Ziva told me he killed his girlfriend—" Abby was squealing, a running commentary, then Gibbs cut her off.

"Abbs, quiet."

Kurt's tail lashed and Abby looked delighted. He tried to teleport, but Gibbs grabbed the back of his neck and jerked his head back.

"No _funny_ business." He growled, and Kurt bared his fangs and started truly growling, the jagged sound tearing up through his chest and throat ferally. Abby came over and gripped his upper arm, making his head whip around, a slightly surprised expression coming onto his face.

"You're coming to my lab, _right_, Gibbs?" Abby said pointedly. Gibbs just stayed quiet, shaking his head slightly. Abby smiled, cocked her head, and started pulling a reluctant Kurt to her lab, Rogue breaking free of the pack of X-Men and tagging along her brother.

"Don't try anyt'in' funny, lady," She growled. "or I'll drop y' like _that_." Rogue snapped a finger under the cuff of one of her gloves menacingly.

"Oh, no, don't worry, I won't." Abby said honestly. Rogue nodded, eyes dark.

XXX

Down in the lab, Abby had Kurt in the chair and was talking fervently.

"Okay, so I need your print, and _holy guacamole_, you have huge fingers," Abby said, and Rogue glowered. Abby took Kurt's prints and ran a thirteen-point match against the print lifted from the scene. "_Good lord!_"

"_Was?_" Kurt asked, leaning around Abby and looking at the flashing screen.

"I've never got a print _this_ clear before. Wow!" she said, eyes wide. "Oh, and also, do you know how—so, we found sulfur and stuff at the crime scene, so how did that get there? God, I've never seen a hair this color before!" Abby lifted an evidence bag with a dark indigo hair in it.

Kurt shook his head. "I didn't keel her!" he insisted, appealing to Rogue.

"He really wouldn've, he loved Kit." Rogue said.

"Hey, that's great, but I'm not Gibbs, and that's who you should be telling this to." Abby said, shrugging. "Oh, wait, here he comes. Gibbs!"

Gibbs strode into the room. "What've you got now, Abbs?"

"The fingerprint is definitely Kurt's, and this hair is his too. I bet if McGee looked hard enough he'd find fur too. I still don't know what the sulfur is from—"

"Sulfur is like brimstone, _ja_?" Kurt asked suddenly.

"Yeah, sorta." Abby said, shrugging. Kurt nodded and 'ported across the room. Abby jumped and Gibbs looked annoyed.

"I teleport. And vhen I pass zrough ze ozzer dimension in my 'port, some of ze atmosphere escapes, and it's brimstone. Zhat could be your sulfur." Kurt said, then did a facepalm, realizing his incriminating mistake.

"And that could be the last nail in your coffin, Wagner." Gibbs growled, dragging Kurt out of the room as Abby shot Rogue an apologetic glance which the Southern girl shrugged off and exited after her brother and the curmudgeonly NCIS agent.

Gibbs dragged Kurt all the way down to the jail cells they had for holding suspects at the other end of the building and threw Kurt inside. Kurt frowned at Gibbs, staring eye-to-eye with him through the bars.

"I've got no reason not to believe that you shot Katherine Pryde to death. You're not getting out of this, understand? You will stay here until I or one of my agents comes and gets you. I will not hesitate to shoot you down if I so much as see a hair out of this cell." Gibbs snarled, banging his gun against the bars to emphasize his point. Kurt backed away and sat down in the corner, looking dejected. Gibbs didn't care. He stormed out, striding back to the lab through the bullpen.

The Xavier Institute people jumped on him, demanding to know just about everything. Gibbs ignored them, letting them fall away as he walked into the elevator. When he got to Abby's lab, he shot one death glare at the Southern girl, masking the surprise he felt at seeing an equally mean death glare shot back at him. He jerked one thumb over his shoulder.

"Out." He demanded. The girl hesitated for a moment, but slunk away and stood in the hallway. Gibbs let the lab door slide shut before approaching Abby.

"Gibbs, I don't think—" Abby started to protest.

"You need to tell me what's going on right now. I've got a bunch of freaks that look like they've stepped out of a comic book up in the bullpen, a furry in jail, and my forensic scientist spitting in the face of all the proof to say that he's innocent! I need answers, Abbs, not opinions!" Gibbs said angrily. Abby frowned at him.

"If you listened to what I said, then you'd know that I just interviewed his sister, and Kurt has a solid alibi for last night." Abby said frostily. Gibbs didn't even break stride.

"Well then, what are you waiting for?"

"According to Rogue, Kurt's sister, Kitty, the dead girl, went out for drinks at a bar near here at about 2100. Normally she would come home around 2300, but she didn't come home. From the hours of 2100 to 0000, Kurt was at home at the Institute studying for a test with a friend named Amanda Sefton." Abby explained.

"Thanks, Abbs." Gibbs pecked her on the cheek and left the lab. Rogue was leaning against the wall moodily outside, and approached Gibbs as he exited.

"So?" she asked.

"So what?" Gibbs countered. "Come with me."

Rogue followed Gibbs into the elevator, and he escorted her to the bullpen. "Everybody listen up! I need verification that Kurt Wagner was at home from nine to midnight last night." He announced. Before they could all start talking at once, he continued. "Anybody with a _solid_ alibi for Wagner, follow me."

Immediately, everyone herded after Gibbs, jamming into the elevator down to interrogation. Gibbs directed them down the hall, then held Ziva behind.

"I need you to find Amanda Sefton for me." He said. The retreating form of Rogue turned around.

"Ah have her numba, if you want it." She volunteered. Ziva looked hopefully at Gibbs, who nodded.

XXX

Two hours later, when Gibbs and DiNozzo had finally gotten through everybody from the Xavier Institute, Ziva escorted a tall, young black woman into the interrogation room.

"I will take her," Ziva said, relieving DiNozzo. He nodded in assent, and let Ziva put Amanda Sefton in the hot seat.

"Where were you last night between nine and midnight last night?" Ziva asked.

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" Amanda asked, voice quiet, sitting ramrod straight in the chair.

"No, you are not. Where were you last night?" Ziva repeated.

"Uh—s-studying with Kurt, at the Institute." Amanda tripped over her own words, making Ziva doubt her.

"We have multiple eyewitnesses that place you in Kurt's room at the Institute, but what were you really doing?" Ziva asked suspiciously with narrowed eyes.

"Studying! That's all we were doing, I swear!" Amanda became shrill and defensive, and Ziva knew she'd struck a nerve.

"Oh, of course you were. Two high school students alone in a bedroom—you were _only_ studying." Ziva said sarcastically.

"Yes! Is that so hard to believe? He's my ex, but that doesn't mean I'd _do_ anything with him!" Amanda exclaimed, frowning.

"I'm sure your parents do not know you were _studying_ with him last night, do they? Maybe you were studying with a different friend, but you would most certainly not be visiting your ex-boyfriend, now would you? Amanda, I know what you were doing last night. All you have to do is say yes and I will let you go. What your parents do with you is up to them, but you will not be in any more trouble with the law." Ziva said levelly. Amanda looked torn for a moment before she blurted,

"Alright! I wasn't studying! We were, y'know . . ." Amanda trailed off uncomfortably, shrugging. "But he was with me the entire night. We watched a movie, and he drove me home at twelve."

"Thank you, Amanda." Ziva opened the door and ushered her out.

In the observation room, DiNozzo turned to Gibbs. "Looks like our prime suspect just got cleared."

"So find me a new one." Gibbs said, walking from the room.

XXX

When Gibbs returned to the cells, Kurt was sitting in the same position, obviously asleep. "Wake up!" Gibbs barked, and Kurt jumped, clambering into a standing position, swaying for a moment before realizing his surroundings again. "You're free to go."

"Vha—really?" Kurt asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Now get out of there." Gibbs opened the door, leading Kurt back to the bullpen. Again, the Xavier Institute people mobbed them, but this time it was in congratulations of Kurt's innocence. Gibbs left the scene, heading back to Abby's lab.

"Abby, tell me you've got something new. Wagner's innocent, but somebody killed Pryde." Gibbs said tersely.

"Well, I haven't gone through all the evidence yet, Gibbs. I've just got to process the shell, a footprint, and some hair." Abby said, not looking up from her computer screen, sipping Caf-Pow as she watched the software run through databases of bullets and shells. A few moments later, it beeped and showed a match. "The bullet belongs to a 1217 Khrakovik ME-45 **[1]**." Abby clicked for a clearer description of the gun.

"What is that?" Gibbs muttered.

"It's a Polish gun that was made in the 40s, during WWII; only forty guns were ever made." Abby announced gleefully—the rarer the gun, the easier it was for her to find. With a few brushes of the keyboard, the software surfed through gun registry databases, until two blinking results appeared.

"There are two ME-45s registered in the US. One belongs to someone who lives in Georgia, the other belongs to a Mr Erik M. Lenscherr, who lives five miles from the base." Abby said, reading off the address, but Gibbs was already out of the room. Abby's heart lurched as she saw a bolded link on the page. It seemed Mr Lenscherr had been convicted of six violent felonies but had escaped the law every time. "Be careful," she muttered, worried.

XXX

"Let's go! Erik Lenscherr! DiNozzo driving!" Gibbs barked, rapid-fire, as he came into the bullpen. His team leaped to attention and ran towards the elevator, as did the Xavier crowd. "Where are you going?" Gibbs demanded.

"Erik Lenscherr—his alias is Magneto. He's our archenemy, a mutant like us. You're going to need our help if you want to get him." Evan said quickly.

"No. You all are deranged. You think you're superheroes and mutants. Back off, this is a job for NCIS." Gibbs said shortly, grabbing Professor Xavier's wheelchair and shoving him out of the elevator. His followers ran after him, stopping him before he hit a cubicle wall. Storm turned to give Gibbs a killing stare as the elevator doors dinged shut.

"_Think_ we're superheroes and mutants?" Evan muttered disgustedly.

"Vhat does he zink I am? A hallucination?" Kurt hissed. "I don't care vot he says, I'm going after Magneto."

"Kurt—" the Professor said cautiously, but Rogue cut him off.

"I'm goin' with ya."

"Me too," Evan agreed. Logan nodded.

"Uh—yeah," Scott said sheepishly, under the hard glare of Jean. The group split and Logan led them down the stairs, out of the building, leaving Storm, the Professor, and Jean standing there dumbfounded.

As Gibbs's team mobilized, peeling out in the van, Logan and his crew were piling into the X-Van and blazing back to the Institute to get the Blackbird and their uniforms.

As Rogue furiously yanked her suit on, all alone, she thought of how odd it was to be charging into battle against Magneto with only half their team—and one member would never be coming back. With her suit zipped, she sprinted through the halls of the basement to the hangar, diving through the door as it was closing.

Logan was waiting for the engines to warm up, but it was taking too long for Rogue. "Just get outta here!" She shouted, standing behind Logan and Scott, in the pilot and copilot seats.

"Then sit down!" Logan yelled back at her. Rogue barely had time to fall into a seat before the Blackbird took off, pressing her back into her seat. The Blackbird shot through the sky like a bullet, arriving at Magneto's lair in less than a minute. Logan landed the jet in a field nearby and the incomplete X-Men took off through the field, heading towards the dilapidated farmhouse that masked Magneto's underground lair.

Kurt galloped ahead and 'ported into the house, looking around cautiously, straining all his senses for the telltale high-pitched whine of an attack drone or security system. He heard thundering footsteps at the front door, behind him, and thought they were the rest of the X-Men catching up. When he saw Rogue come in the back door, though, he panicked.

"NCIS! Open up!" Gibbs's voice rang through the rotted wood of the door. As he kicked the door in, Kurt reacted in fear, leaping onto the wall and crawling away.

"Hey! Freeze!" DiNozzo's voice was slightly muted by the layers of wood in between him and Kurt, but they had seen him. Kurt rounded a corner and jumped back to the ground, skidding around a corner and tripping down a flight of stairs, crashing heavily at the bottom—into a metal door.

He heard two separate herds of people closing in at the top of the stairs, bracing himself for the confrontation. Logan and Gibbs came face-to-face.

"It's that damn cop," Logan spat in Gibbs's face.

"What the hell are you doing here? This is a federal investigation! You don't have a warrant!" Gibbs roared, reaching the end of his rope.

"We have as much right to be here as you! We're seeking retribution for our team member—that's the way things _go_ in the _mutant_ community." Logan growled, low and dangerous, catching a glimpse of Kurt at the bottom, against the door. "Our team found his hideout first."

He thundered down the stairs, the X-Men following behind, NCIS after them. Kurt moved out of the way as Logan unsheathed his claws and drove them into the door with a snarl, slicing a huge hole in the metal, kicking it in. The X-Men rushed in with military efficiency and practice, startling the NCIS agents at just how experienced they were.

Gibbs followed behind and just caught a glimpse of the X-Men sprinting down a hallway.

"How the hell do they know where they're going? It's a rat maze down here." DiNozzo commented.

"Whatever; just follow them." Gibbs said shortly before running off after them. Suddenly, an earsplitting screech echoed down the hallway. NCIS picked up their pace, rounding a corner and saw a full-fledged battle raging in front of them. Even the stony Gibbs stopped dead in awe and shock.

A tall, caped, helmeted man stood at the back of the room, metal objects floating around him and slamming into unfortunate X-Men. An even stockier, burlier man tangled with Logan, each with claws, each fighting to the death and ripping up the steel of the room. A lithe blue woman the same color of Kurt was fighting with him using expert martial arts, aiming hard kicks at his head. A silver whirlwind raged through the room, knocking over X-Men and beating them bloody in a matter of seconds. A variety of shabbily-dressed teenagers ranged through the room, causing earthquakes, showers of sparks, splatters of slime, and mangled equipment.

Evan ducked through the silver whirlwind and made a charge towards the man at the back of the room only to be hit in the head with a steel beam. He fell and was sickeningly still as blood dripped from his ear. Kurt immediately took up the charge Evan had started, leaping off the floating objects and careening towards the helmeted man. He was a few feet from him when he suddenly disappeared in a crack of thick smoke and blinding light. The helmeted man, disoriented, stumbled and let the metal objects drop.

Kurt reappeared behind him, shoved off the wall, barreled into him with his shoulder, and dropped him to the ground. They were only there for a moment before they disappeared again. Logan bellowed something over the din and the X-Men pulled out, scooping up the fallen Evan in the process, sweeping the NCIS agents along with them as they rushed down the corridors, fleeing. Scott held them off, firing searing blasts at the pursuers.

The X-Men burst from the farmhouse and dead ran towards the Blackbird, and the NCIS agents were caught up in the frenzy. When the plane doors slammed shut, everyone belted themselves into a seat, and the engines roared, only then did somebody realize that they'd kidnapped NCIS.

XXX

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XXX

**[1] This gun is not real! It's fake because I couldn't find any satisfactorily rare and unusual guns on Google.**

**I haven't updated this in forever, and I must give the utmost thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Happy belated Holidays, everyone!**

**Iris**


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